Arts & Culture | Film

Writing on the day of the first U.S. presidential campaign debate, it is impossible for me not to note that political polarization seems to be a global phenomenon with potentially toxic consequences. That is hardly an original observation, but after watching Shimon Dotan’s superb new documentary “The Settlers,” which will be shown in this year’s New York Film Festival, one is acutely aware of the possibility of a society tearing itself to pieces when its political differences have destroyed any shared goals and dreams. A pessimist who sees “The Settlers” might understandably come away the film convinced that the future of the State of Israel will be terrifyingly brief.

Never let it be said that Natalie Portman lacks courage. At a pivotal moment in her acting career, she opted to go to Harvard for a degree in psychology. She has taken on a number of difficult roles with the potential to disrupt her upward climb and, in one notable case, “Black Swan,” turned the choice into Oscar gold.

For the fourth installment of the Israel Film Center Festival, a welcome addition to the cultural calendar, family — especially the Mizrahi nuclear family — is everything. And while it may be too soon to call this a cinematic trend — running counter, as it does, to Israeli films that deal with politics and matters of war and peace — three films in this year’s festival tread over that little-cultivated ground.

Erez Laufer was 5 years old when he first met Yitzchak Rabin. Laufer’s father taught at the Kadoorie boarding school, a Rabin alma mater, and when the then – chief of staff of the IDF landed in the family’s yard in a helicopter, Erez was there to greet him.

Back in the winter of 2015, I closed an interview with Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz by asking them if their film, “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem,” represented a farewell to the eponymous central character whose familial troubles had carried through a trilogy of singular intensity and nuance.